I discovered Harry Manx on Emusic. I haven't had a chance to sit down for an real serious listen, but the two albums that stand out so far are "Mantras for Madmen" and "Wise and Otherwise". He's pretty mellow-after an hour I had to put on some Mississippi All-Stars and wake up, but still pretty decent stuff.

R L Burnside, Robert Belfour, T-Model Ford, Richard Johnston and others got me started in the "deep-blues" genre. I actually saw Johnston playing in front of a bar in Memphis sometime back and give him credit for turning me on to R.L. There is now a Deep Blues Festival near the Twin Cities every summer.